Televisions Guide

LG to Suppress Mass Production of OLED TV Panels till 2013?

It's only a rumor, so take this with a pinch of salt. Digitimes has published an article citing an unidentified "report from Japan" that LG Display's 55-inch OLED-TV panels will not see volume production till next year. Unfortunately, we're unable to tap into the original article since it's only available to paying subscribers.

According to Ken Werner, Senior Analyst and Editor of Display Central, this isn't the strongest imaginable source for a story, but the delay in production is highly plausible. He also cited reasons as to why LG might be holding back on mass producing their OLED TV panels till various issues are sorted out.

In summary, Werner stated that it's already September, and LG might find it hard to ramp up volume production at a new plant till well into 2013. He also added that LG may have committed themselves to metal-oxide backplanes a little prematurely. Apparently, LG "isn't too pleased" with the oxide-TFT performance thus far, meaning they'll need time to improve it before the panels are released for the mass market.

Samsung and LG are known to adopt different approaches for their OLED panels. Unlike Samsung's RGB solution, LG does not have to pattern its white OLED layers "which are continuous and deposited from a linear source", according to Werner. Might LG be facing uniformity issues with this particular process?

Sometime in May last year, a report published by Alfred Poor (HDTV Magazine) suggests that instead of polysilicon, LG is allegedly using "a new metal-oxide technology that's easier to create on large substrates" required for the active backplane on OLED panels.

LG's 55-inch EM9600 OLED TV is due to make its appearance here at the end of the year. We'll update this post once we hear from LG themselves if there's any semblance of truth to these rumors.